Time to Let Joe Go?
Posted: Friday, February 23, 2007 8:41 AM by Countdown
In an interview with TIME Magazine, former Democrat Joe Lieberman says officially switching to the Republican party remains a "remote possibility." In the meantime, he is relishing 'the leverage with both parties no matter how slim the
chance of his crossing the aisle.""Whatever Joe Lieberman Wants"
...with the Democrats' hold on power dependent on just one vote — in
effect, his — and with Republicans courting him to tilt the balance in
their favor, Lieberman has been indulging in some fairly immodest
political footsie. Early this year he terrified fellow Democrats by
skipping several of the weekly caucus lunches that cement party
fidelity in the Senate. Recently he was spotted in the Republican
cloakroom talking with South Carolina's Lindsey Graham about reforming
Social Security. He even says he might vote Republican for President in
2008, a not-so-veiled hint that he would prefer John McCain, his fellow
true believer in the Iraq war, to most, perhaps all, Democratic
alternatives.
Lieberman says leaving the Democratic Party is a "very remote
possibility." But even that slight ambiguity — and all his cross-aisle
flirtation — has proved more than enough to position Lieberman as the
Senate's one-man tipping point. If he were to jump ship, the ensuing
shift of power to Republicans would scramble the politics of the war in
Iraq, undercut the Democrats' national agenda and potentially weaken
their hopes for the White House in 2008. Those stakes are high enough
to give Lieberman leverage with both parties no matter how slim the
chance of his crossing the aisle. Which means Senate leaders aren't
worrying only about whether Joe Lieberman will switch parties. They're
wondering what, if anything, he plans to do with the power that comes
from keeping that possibility alive.
But is it time for the Democratic Party to rip the Band-Aid off once and for all, and let Joe Lieberman go? Would losing their tenuous hold on the Senate really hurt the Dems' chances to take the White House in 2008?
Or would making a statement to the voters who put them in power - that they are more committed to the ideals that got them elected than they are to holding power itself - work more in their favor heading into the next election cycle?
It's a high stakes gamble, but the American people didn't vote the Dems in in '06 so that they could compromise to keep the tiniest sliver of political power... did they?
These questions and many more, tonight on Countdown - 8pm ET
